comparisons
by uncannybatman
Summary: After Acatraz the students at Xaviers remember someone else with unimaginable powers


My first story was with Magik and the justice League, but the first chapters were awful. I was writing that story just for several conversations in the three unpublished chapters, but it was just too bad. This is actually good.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

/

Rogue and Bobby sat next to some of their classmates (completely new characters) in the cafeteria. The subject of conversation was the recent actions of their former teacher, Jean Grey.

"I can't believe that Doctor Grey would do all that. She always seemed so normal, at least for a mutant." Rogue said.

She was answered by Jake. "I know what you mean. If anyone were to cause destruction like that, I'd have thought it would be Magik."

Rogue was about to ask who Jake was talking about but Bobby was quicker to respond. "Come on Jake. She wasn't like that. She even died saving us all."

"Someone like her? it's a good thing she's dead." The others at the table either mumbled in agreement or nodded their heads.

"Your sick Jake." Bobby said, starting to get angry. "Can't you show some respect to the dead?"

Jake responded with his own question. "Why do you even care? You hated her just as much as any of us."

"That was before she sacrificed herself."

"She caused that mess." Jake accused. "And if she didn't die then she would have done what Doctor Grey did."

"You're wrong." was all Bobby could say. Rogue noticed that he had frozen all of his food.

Jake wouldn't let the subject drop. "Do you feel guilty about how you treated her? Is that why you're dating the parasite (he motioned toward Rogue)?"

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An hour later the staff was still trying to get Jake out of the block of ice he was in and Bobby was getting the lecture of a lifetime from Storm. Kitty Pryde found Rogue by the infirmary where Jake was defrosting.

"What set Bobby off like that Rogue? He's normally so calm."

"Jake called me a parasite and said that Bobby was only dating me because felt guilty about how he treated someone called Magik."

Kitty's face saddened. "Oh, you guys were comparing her to Doctor Grey." Rogue nodded. "Yeah. Most of the school's doing that."

"Why? Who was she? And what does she have to do with Bobby's dating me?"

"Well, that last question, um, do you remember when you sent Logan to the infirmary before running away? After that people compared _you_ to her for a time."

Rogue scowled, both from being insulted and from the memory. "So who is this Magik that I and Doctor Grey have been compared to?"

Kitty sighed. "Come with me."

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In Kitty's room Rogue sat while Kitty searched, first for a box of tissues. "This story is really sad and will make me cry." Then she pulled a painting out of the box where she kept her most treasured possessions. "This is Magik. Illyana Rasputin."

The painting was of a beautiful teenage girl, wearing shining silver armor and holding a sword to her side with two hands. She was blonde and had blue eyes. The setting of the painting was pitch black; the only source of light was the girl's sword, which glowed and illuminated her features.

"Rasputin. Was she related to Peter?" Rogue asked.

Kitty nodded. "She was Peter's younger sister. And my roommate."

"Well, its obvious that Peter painted this. No one else here can paint as well as him. But since when does he exaggerate the features of his subjects?"

"He didn't." Kitty answered. "Ilyana really looked like this. Although when he put up the first version some numskulls added horns and other satanic things. He thought that the people here would have changed after she died, but… He just gave the second one to me. "

"That's terrible. So why does everyone hate her?"

"Because they were afraid of her. Imagine someone who can teleport like Mr. Wagner, heal from any injury like Logan, shoot really strong energy blasts like Mr. Summers, move things without touching them like Doctor Gray, and can even alter the weather, though not quite to the same extent as Miss Munroe."

Rogue was shocked. "How could she do all that? Was she some sort of super mutant?"

"She was a very powerful mutant. Her mutant power was to teleport through 'light circles.' She could 'port literally anywhere, regardless of distance. The disks also traveled through time." Kitty the smiled. "Everyone thought that was so cool. Time travel."

"I thought that everyone hated her. Now you're saying that everyone thought she was _cool_?

"Sorry. I guess I should start from the beginning. Illyana was a little kid, six or seven, when she was kidnapped from her village by a sorcerer named Belesco. He took her to some other dimension where time flows differently. She aged there at least seven years but then her mutant powers manifested, allowing her to escape. After coming back to Earth she joined Peter who was already here. That's all she told us. The professor somehow couldn't read her mind to find out more, which made everyone suspicious-"

Rogue interjected "Whoa. Wait. You're not making any sense. She can't be both cool _and _hated. And if her mutant power was teleporting, although teleporting through time _is_ really cool, what do you mean when you say that she has the powers of the X-men?"

Kitty glared at Rogue. "I'm getting to all that. Now can I tell the story without getting interrupted?"

"Sorry."

"Okay. After coming here, Illyana made herself quite popular. She was beautiful, seemed to have a lot of joy, and seemed to love to party. That persona wasn't real though. It was just an act, which backfired on her in the end.

"Four months after she came Belesco showed up in front of the school with his demon pet S'ym, demanding the return of someone he called 'Darkchylde'. The X-men fought S'ym, but nothing seemed to affect him. The professor tried to mind blast S'ym, but that only made S'ym angry. Peter transformed and got between S'ym and the professor, but S'ym proved to be much stronger than him. S'ym was about to kill Peter when Illyana teleported next to him, soulsword in hand. She cut off S'ym's head and then marched right up to Belesco.

"Before you ask, Rogue," Kitty continued, pointing at the glowing blade in Peter's painting, "the soulsword was a magical weapon that Illyana forged from a piece of her own soul, and it was extremely powerful. This incident was when we realized that Illyana was more than just a mutant. She was a sorceress."

"A sorceress? So that's how she could do all those things you said?" Rogue asked.

Kitty nodded. "After killing S'ym Illyana started to duel Belesco. That duel lasted at least half an hour, and it was really something else. She was good, no, great, at magic. Eventually she won and imprisoned Belesco in her sword."

"So she saved the school. Why would she be hated for that?" Rogue asked.

"We had just seen what magic could do. Naturally people were scared of her. But she was just so much more powerful than anyone else here, and for the first time people started asking how someone with her story and powers could have that happy go lucky persona she put on. The consensus among the students was that she must be up to something.

"She only acted like that to fit in. Most of the time after coming here she was actually brooding by herself. I only saw that because I was her roommate.

"After Belesco's attack people started hating her and teasing her. They called her many things, the most polite of which was 'Darkchylde.' They stopped calling her most of that after she died but the attitudes are still there. They have enough respect to just call her 'Magik' now.

"Another thing that no one knew about her was that she was constantly preventing demonic invasions. She had taken over the dimension that Belesco controlled when he kidnapped her and had many responsibilities that came with that job."

"So how did _you_ find out about that?" Rogue asked.

"I stumbled upon a light circle in our room that she was using to lure these creatures called dire wraiths so could kill them easier. I stupidly entered the disk and found myself in the battle."

"And if she's dead who's ruling that realm and stopping all those invasions now?"

"Illyana was actually worried about that. She found a sorceress named Amanda Sefton to replace her if something happened. She's in that dimension now, wielding Illyana's soulsword." Kitty seemed sadder than ever as she said this. This knowledge made her friend's death feel all the more real.

Rogue asked another question. "Did she die in one of those demon invasions?"

"Sort of." Kitty said. "There was one demon, N'astrihr, that was much smarter than any of the others. He realized that going _through_ Illyana wasn't going to work, so he decided to _use _her instead. This plan actually worked. An army of demons was able to enter New York and started wreaking havoc. And if that wasn't enough nature went crazy and everything from buildings to subway cars to mail boxes were attacking people.

"The professor and Magneto teamed up to fight the demons." Rogue gave her a 'what the heck' look so Kitty said "Hey, Magneto can't take over the world if its destroyed, can he? Anyway, the X-men and Peter-they weren't keeping him away when his sister was in trouble-went to rescue Illyana while Magneto's men defended New York. Oh yeah, Amanda Sefton helped them defend the city. She's the only reason they all survived.

"The X-men were successful in rescuing Illyana and they all went to the heart of the battle. I wasn't there, but they told me…" Kitty began to cry at this point. She blew her nose and wiped tears from her eyes. "Sorry. Its just that Illyana was the best friend I ever had.

"She looked like Doctor Grey did as the Phoenix, but not crazy. With a single attack she cleared time square of all its demons, including N'astrihr . She then summoned a light circle larger than Manhattan and floated into it. There was a wind that swept all the remaining demons into the disk, which also glowed so bright that no one could keep their eyes open. When the light faded everything was back to normal. Nearly all the damage had been repaired but…"

Kitty had to blow her nose again. "Her soulsword appeared in Amanda Sefton's hands. And… and they found Illyana's armor crushed and burnt to a crisp. That was all of her we had to bury."

As Kitty reached for another tissue Rogue asked "How come that wasn't in the news? A demon invasion of New York would be all over the world in minutes."

"No technology was working without trying to eat its owner while it was happening, and afterwards the combination of the professor with cerebro and Amanda Sefton's spells made everyone in New York forget what happened.

"After that, many people apologized to those who, like Peter and I, always liked Illyana, including Bobby. Some blamed her for the whole thing and still think that she got nothing more than she deserved." She scowled. "Damn jerks. She didn't need to sacrifice herself for _them_." With that she broke down completely.

Rogue, now empowered thanks to the 'cure,' hugged Kitty and said "You know what. I'm actually proud to be compared to Illyana."/

I'm planning on making a cross over with Magik and Harry Potter and a retelling of the comics Magik was in from New Mutants issue 14 through Inferno. In the reviews vote for which I should do first.


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